Chinese Accounting Cultural Studies

Accounting culture , a new macro viewpoint, spreads many kinds of accounting practice. It is an integrated culture, including history and reality, macroscopy and microscopy, static state and dynamic state, concept and system. Therefore, it should be a common concern of theory and practice to research Chinese accounting culture and to strengthen the construction of Chinese accounting culture.Through researching the basic proposition of accounting culture, the historical evolution of accounting culture, the environment of accounting culture as well as analyzing the status of the construction of Chinese accounting culture, this paper deeply studies the necessity of the construction of Chinese accounting culture and the effective way of constructing Chinese accounting culture, for the purpose of achieving some goals as follows: (1) grasping the trend of the development of Chinese accounting cause so as to provide some guidance to accounting reform and development; (2) building accounting management theory and method system with Chinese characteristics, in order to guide accounting management practice, to make up some deficiencies for the present rigid management of accounting, and to deepen the reform of accounting system by taking advantage of flexible management, which is composed of value, belief, social responsibility, so that accounting behavior is to be encouraged and guided and harmonious accounting environment is to be built; (3) better maintaining Chinese excellent traditional culture and actively absorbing the spiritual essence and quintessence of alien advanced culture, in the process of coordination and convergence between Chinese accounting and international accounting, to create advanced accounting culture with our national characteristics.The paper studies accounting culture by two main lines and six main parts.The two main lines are vertical line and horizontal line. In view of the vertical line, the paper starts from culture, placing the accounting culture study on the basis of studying culture, especially Chinese traditional culture, so as to construct a framework of studying culture—Chinese culture - Chinese traditional culture. By discussing the concept of culture, the essence and limitations of Chinese traditional culture and the characteristics of Chinese modern culture, analyzing the concept, elements and functions of the accounting culture, Chapter 2 puts forward a new scope i.e. accounting culture comes into being from the mutual pervasion between accounting and culture in their respective disciplines. On the other side, it observes the rules and the methods of accounting from cultural and scientific viewpoints, and reveals cultural essence and rules on related accounting activities. Chapter 3 analyzes the origin of Chinese accounting culture, ancient accounting culture, neoteric accounting culture and modern accounting culture, summarizes the origin, development and rule of accounting culture by historical method, outlines historical development of Chinese accounting culture, and points out the characteristics of accounting culture in each historical period.Based on the comparison of the Chinese and western cultures, the horizontal line further studies the impact of different culture on accounting culture and in turn on the Chinese accounting culture, resulting in a research framework of analyzing the difference between the two cultures---the features of the difference---the environment difference of it. Having analyzed the difference of Chinese and western cultures in Chapter 2 of this paper, Chapter 3 describes in detail the characteristics of modern accounting and accounting culture features of main European countries, United States, Japan and China. As analyzed in Chapter 4, cultures in different typical countries are diversified; it therefore comes into the conclusion that different accounting culture is influenced by different political, economic, legal as well as cultural environment, and only by absorbing foreign advanced achievements concerned and combining them with our own practice can Chinese accounting culture go out to the outside world.The six parts are respectively the theoretical basis of accounting culture study, the view of accounting culture study, the general proposition of accounting culture study, the environment study of accounting culture and the application study of accounting culture.The theoretical basis of accounting culture study contains culture, economics, accounting, ethics, psychology, behavioral science, management and other objects. There are two perspectives of accounting culture study, including horizontal perspective and vertical perspective. The general proposition study of Chinese accounting culture contains definition study, content study, element study, characteristic study and function study. The environment of accounting culture includes political environment, economic environment, scientific and technological environment, law environment, culture environment, the international environment and internal environment. Application study of accounting culture, which is the core of the paper, analyses the present construction status of Chinese accounting culture, discusses the necessity, the goal and the principles of the construction of Chinese accounting culture, proposes that the way to strength the construction of Chinese accounting culture is to develop accounting material culture, to strength accounting system culture, to optimize accounting behavior culture, and to enhance accountingspirit culture.The innovation lies in the paper that accounting culture study is based on culture study, so as to further find the source of accounting culture. The paper uses the method of comparative study on Chinese and western culture, especially analyzes the impact of Chinese culture, which is rooted in Confucian culture, on accounting, therefore, it could exert its advantage, actively absorb the spiritual essence and quintessence of alien culture, so as to create advanced accounting culture with national characteristics. The paper makes use of theories of politics, history, sociology, behavior, philosophy, accounting and other theories to theoretically abstract accounting culture value and also brings accountants' thought, social psychology, values, behaviors, moral and aesthetic temperament into the scope of accounting culture, in order to let accounting culture study reflect the interdisciplinary mixture, resulting in constructing the theoretical system of accounting culture. Based on both domestic and oversea researches, and by using questionnaires, the paper analyzes the status and reasons of constructing Chinese accounting culture, brings about the goal of construction of Chinese accounting culture, and put forward the countermeasures on strengthening the construction of Chinese accounting culture.